As more baby boomers continue to exit the workforce, the need to attract and retain millennial workers has become vital to the sustenance of our present-day workforce. Also known as Generation Y, millennials are individuals born between the early 80s and late 90s.

There is a general misconception that most millennials prefer changing jobs every few years. In reality, many millennials want a job with the proper working environment to learn, improve their skills, and become their organization's key decision-makers.

Hiring new employees can be an expensive venture. So, one way of keeping costs down for many business owners is to ensure a reasonable staff retention rate.

Reasons Why Millennials May Likely Leave A Job

The typical work culture as we know it has continued to evolve. These days, staff loyalty is a measure of a company's work culture and policy. Before finding out how to attract and retain millennial workers, you need to understand the general reasons why millennials often quit their jobs and what attracts them to employers.

The main reason most millennials quit their job is as a result of a poor working atmosphere. Millennials love to work flexibly and yet crave the challenges that come with working in a well-structured organization. In addition, many millennials have transferable skills they want to use, and once they feel their skills are not adequately utilized or recognized, they quit.

Attracting And Retaining Millennials

The best way of attracting and retaining millennials in your organization is to create a fulfilling work environment that aligns with the interests of millennials. Here are a few you could use.

1. Focus on Creating a Flexible Work Culture

They want to work from anywhere that suits them. However, millennials make up the largest workforce, and their attitude to work schedules is very different. A lot of Millennials believe the workplace should not be restricted to working from a defined workstation.

Workplace flexibility for most millennials is about choosing where, when, and how they can accomplish their assignments. Millennials believe that measuring productivity by the number of hours spent in the office is erroneous. Instead, work productivity should be based on how successfully you perform your task.

Many millennials are familiar with the latest tech tools, so they will always opt for working remotely and utilizing the tools available to them – why work in one location when you can be anywhere? Millennials prioritize workplace flexibility and are very likely to reject companies with a strict work structure. The main reasons this generation prefer a flexible work schedule is for the following reasons:

• It promotes work-life balance
• Increases productivity
• Improves job satisfaction

So, you should ensure you structure your working schedules to accommodate working from home if you are intentional about attracting and retaining millennial workers.

2. Promote Career Development Opportunities

According to research by Robert Walters, 91% of millennial professionals see career progression as a top priority. Similarly, 53% of millennials in the survey said they had been disappointed by the lack of personal development training when starting a new job. The desire to learn new skills and show top-level creativity is one of the hallmarks of millennial workers.

To attract and retain millennials, you should develop good development and training programs that enhance learning and provide growth opportunities. It's also a good idea to have meaningful and open discussions with your millennial workers to know about their career aspirations and development so you can help them put these into action.

For most millennial workers, growing in a career is more important than securing a job. Employers can take advantage of the forward-thinking and transferable skill sets of millennials to enhance the productivity and growth of their organization.

3. All-Inclusive Remuneration Structure

Everyone wants to be valued and appreciated, including millennials. So an inclusive remuneration structure goes beyond just salary. It entails everything from bonuses and benefits packages to fun extras like Netflix or Spotify subscriptions etc.

4. Regular Feedback

Millennials love periodic feedback and appraisals. They want to be sure you are taking note of their career development and growth. Rather than annual appraisals, ensure you provide monthly or quarterly feedback and reward those exceeding assigned targets and expectations.

Regular feedback sessions provide some measure of assurance to millennials that their impact is being noticed. The millennial worker loves dealing in specifics, and they want to know areas they have done well or fallen short. Give them something to work with and make them feel their time is valued. Create a well-structured feedback policy that is both productive and actionable to ensure you maximize the usefulness of these sessions to both parties.

5. Create or Enhance Your Corporate Social Responsibility Policy

Companies that want to attract the best talent in the hiring pool need to be innovative with their company policy, including their corporate social responsibility. While baby boomers prefer a workplace with stability and good pay, millennials have other priorities that are way beyond a fat salary. A 2016 Cone Communication study showed that:

• 64% of millennials will not do a job if a potential employer doesn't have a robust corporate social responsibility practice.
• 75% of millennials would take a pay cut to work for a socially responsible company

Based on this report, it is fair to say that millennials are more likely to work for a company that has a cause. They want to be active participants and share ideas that their company will achieve its social responsibility goals. Attracting and retaining millennial workers takes more than just good pay and a working environment.

Start a CSR program if you do not have one. It may appear challenging at first to structure your business to accommodate social responsibilities. However, if you're recruiting millennials who are thrilled to be working with a company with a social purpose, it'll be worth it in the long run.

6. Build a Diverse Workforce

Millennials are challenging the cause of promoting a diverse workplace. Though the calls for more diversity in the workplace have become prevalent among all generations, millennials remain the most vocal in the call for a diverse workplace.

Millennials want to work in an organization that recognizes diversity and inclusivity in all areas, including gender, race, religion, and sexual orientation. To promote a diverse workplace, you must acknowledge the differences in people and value all diversity. Therefore, it's a worthwhile task to conduct a self-evaluation to ascertain if you're doing enough to promote diversity in your company.

Conclusion

Millennials are a different breed. They are risk-takers who crave a competitive and challenging work environment. We believe you should be able to attract and retain millennials once you can implement these tips.

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